A wave of coronavirus patients is already hitting Memphis hospitals, a top local expert said, and state officials and the Army Corps of Engineers are expected to announce the location of a new 1,000-bed hospital in Memphis in the coming days.
"We really need to get the message out. We have already 70 or more patients," Dr. Manoj Jain, the infectious disease expert advising the city of Memphis, told Shelby County Commissioners in a conference call Wednesday.
"I'm an infectious disease doctor, I go in and see patients . . . Hospitals already have 70 or more COVID-19 patients who are taking up the beds in ICUs and over 140 who are potential COVID positive patients."
"So that volume is already coming into our hospitals in a big way. And the public just doesn't know that, I believe," Jain said.